Poland cancels Israeli visit over property restitution
Dispute centres around Jewish buildings seized in Holocaust
Poland has cancelled a visit from an Israeli delegation amid a smouldering dispute over the restitution of Jewish property seized during and after the Holocaust.
Avi Cohen-Scali, from Israel’s social equality ministry, had been due to hold meetings in Poland on Monday. However, Poland’s foreign ministry said the visit had been cancelled after Israel changed the composition of its delegation at the last moment, “which could suggest that the talks were meant to focus on property restitution”.
Restitution is a highly emotive theme in Poland, which was home to Europe’s biggest Jewish population until it was all but obliterated by Nazi Germany during the second world war. Redress has emerged as a prominent issue in the final stretch of campaigning in Poland for this month’s European parliamentary elections.
At the heart of the fight is a US law passed last year, known as the “Just Act”, which requires the State Department to report on what various countries have done to return or provide compensation for “wrongfully seized or transferred Holocaust era assets”.
Polish nationalists have attacked the law, which they fear is aimed at pressuring Warsaw into paying compensation. Poland suffered huge losses after it was invaded by Germany and the government is vehemently opposed to paying out any money. On Saturday, thousands of nationalists marched through central Warsaw in protest against the US law.
The stand-off over restitution is the latest in a series of disputes between Poland and Israel over history. In February, Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, cancelled a trip to Israel following spat about the Holocaust. And last year, the two countries were embroiled in a bitter fight over a Polish law that — until it was amended — introduced jail sentences for people found guilty of accusing the Polish nation or state of complicity in crimes committed by Nazi Germany.
Georgette Mosbacher, the US ambassador to Poland, on Monday sought to defuse the latest row, saying the Just Act does “not impose any financial or legal burdens. It’s just a one-off report for the US Congress, which is intended to analyse the progress of countries within the field of restitution,” she wrote on Twitter.
However, Poland’s decision to cancel the visit drew a sharp response from Israeli politicians. “After the Holocaust law, now the rightful return of property to the families of murdered Jews is off the table,” Yair Lapid, from the centrist Yesh Atid party, wrote on Twitter.
“The Polish government is using and abusing the memory of the Holocaust. It is Israel’s moral obligation to make its voice heard. The government has to take a stand and say enough.”
Wary of being outflanked from the right, Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has stepped up its rhetoric against the US law in recent weeks. Both the party’s founder, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and Mr Morawiecki, have ruled out Poland paying compensation.
One of Mr Morawiecki’s top aides said on Monday that Warsaw would unveil proposals this week that would protect Poland from paying war compensation.